Drunken Owls and Other Delights

Not sure if it was a cold, or allergies, or both, but I'm finally seeing the end of it after two weeks. I was either constantly nose-blowing, congested, or coughing, and it would wake me up constantly in the middle of the night. And thankfully this morning I woke up feeling surprisingly rested with a much clearer head. The sniffles are still there but at slight allergy levels now, and I haven't had a scratchy or phlegmy throat since yesterday, so I'm hoping I'm on the mend.

It did take a bit of wind out of me, but I had the foresight to use whatever energy I had post-work (or pre-work) to focus on the Trilogy Remaster, and whip off an easy 750Words entry. That was about it, however, so my blogs fell by the wayside. Hopefully this coming week I'll be back on track there.

Thankfully, next week's work schedule is going to be mostly opens which means I'll be able to catch up a lot easier and not have to shoehorn too much work in not enough hours! I just have the one midshift (plus a bonus sixth day to cover the other bookkeeper on Sunday, but that should be uneventful). I've got today and tomorrow off, and I'm using the time to sleep in, catch up and relax a bit.

Hope everyone has a good week!

I very rarely work on Sundays, and when I do it's usually because our head bookkeeper took the day off and I'm pretty much the only one to take his place. Today was such a case, meaning my weekend will be tomorrow and Tuesday instead. Thankfully the last few post-Valentines shifts have been extremely laid back and uneventful (and fully-staffed!) to the point where I could do what needs doing, take my own time doing it, and not have to worry about doing five other equally important things at the same time.

Unfortunately I haven't quite been on top of my writing schedule these last couple of weeks. Some of it is due to my work schedule, but a lot of it still boils down to distraction. I'm definitely on track for the Trilogy Remaster work, but I feel I could better utilize my time elsewhere as well. I'd rather not keep Theadia sitting there doing nothing. So again -- I need to readjust my time. I'll admit it didn't help that I had that neck pain followed immediately by a week's worth of head cold, but now that I've gotten past both I think I'm more than able to do so.

So what am I doing the next couple of days, aside from the writing? Not much other than laundry and relaxing. After six straight days of the Day Job I need the break!

I've got on-call jury duty this coming week so I may or may not need to go in, and won't know each day until the night before. Now, I'm hoping that it won't be like last time in which I'm called in on the very last day as that was a pain in the ass on several levels. This also means I'm suddenly free on my schedule...so that means I really should use that time wisely and get a lot of writing work done. I'll admit I was super lazy on my birthday (and felt ever so slightly guilty about it) by doing almost nothing except futzing around on the computer.

So yeah, my plan is to focus on Theadia and also get started on the Anniversary Remaster of A Division of Souls. I really need to get started on the second one considering I've given myself a hard deadline for it! [Why September 3rd? Because that's the date of the first scene. Heh.] I don't believe I need to to a huge amount of work on it, but there are passages I think could use some light dusting and straightening out.

Today we covered two hours service time at the community garden (the agreement is that we work at least twelve) and spent it doing some major and much needed weeding. We're both exhausted and achy now, but it was definitely worth it. I also met one of our other lot neighbors for the first time so that was neat as well! We still plan on redoing our lot and putting in new gopher wire, and I'm both looking forward to and dreading that. Dreading as it entails a crapton of digging of the current soil, tearing out the old chicken wire that shouldn't have been there in the first place, and then putting all that crapton of soil back, with a fresh layer of compost as well. It'll be worth it once it's done, but I'm pretty sure my back and knees are going to scream in agony the entire time. Ah well...!





Hope everyone has a good week ahead!

Someone wrote up a really nice review for A Division of Souls! And not only that, they left them everywhere: on GoodReads, Amazon, Smashwords, and their own blog! That truly made my day. :D

I've been so busy the last few days that I've lost track of time. Day Jobbery keeps me on my toes, especially when an apocalyptic snowstorm hits the east coast and shuts down not only the print facility but the both USPS and FedEx delivery hubs, and clients still want to know why their checks are late. *headdesk* Plus I seem to have given myself a much tighter editing schedule than I expected in regards to The Persistence of Memories, which at this point may be pushed to end of February. As much as I hate to admit defeat, it's still much too long (it's about 10k longer than A Division of Souls...which, by the way, has been getting rousing applause by readers but has the same problem: it's also far too long). Since the ending is in sight for this one, I'll finish this run off and start over ONE MORE TIME to see where I can cut.

Which brings me to a related thought...I will, at some point, need to head back to ADoS and do the same. As much as I love the deliberate pacing for this trilogy, it's not for everyone. I will admit that there are definitely some scenes that can be cut, shortened, or sped up. I'm not entirely sure when I'll be hitting that one next, as I'd like to work on The Balance of Light after I'm done with TPoM. We shall see.

And what of Walk in Silence...? *sigh* As much as I'd love to get that out by April, my schedule isn't playing fair, so that one may not be released until autumn. I don't want to put out a half-assed book I'm not proud of, and I do my shittiest work when I kludge it together and call it done. I will of course keep everyone updated on this.

So...what else is going on? Well, I'm currently living the bachelor life for a few weeks, as A is currently in Manila on a work-related trip. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the time difference (9am today here in SF is 1am tomorrow there), but we make do. She's been tweeting all kinds of really tasty food she's been buying and eating, which is making me jealous. And believe it or not, the apartment has not degraded into a messy mancave. In fact, I spent most of the first day doing some serious cleaning, and plan on continuing with that next weekend. And yes, I have been eating well! Or reasonably well. I've only ordered out once so far, and that was due to having forgotten to get something out of the freezer to thaw. The only thing I've been bad at is going to bed at a normal time, but that's due to my wanting to get some serious writing work done. I guess I'm at that age where becoming a slovenly slacker just doesn't have the appeal anymore.

Speaking of age...as of last Friday, I am now the same speed as a seven-inch single. And I am fine with that. No, really, I am! :p

...or in this case, the pantry. At least a dozen or so out-of-date foodstuffs tossed (most of them over a year or so old, including a forgotten tiny bottle of some kind of spread with a sell-by date before we even moved to our present location!!), things re-arranged, other things to be put away elsewhere. Realized we have an insane amount of jams and preserves, and an even more insane amount of tea. Our snack situation is positive, considering we made a run to World Market today and found various tasty things like Coffee Crisps, Tim-Tams and chocolate bars, and followed it up with an assortment box of Jo-Jo's from Trader Joe's. Oh! And not one but two assortment boxes of Samuel Smith beers (the three-bottle gift box that comes with a pint glass, so now we have a matching set of four glasses). And earlier this week I boxed up the books that I should bring down to the SF Library store at Fort Mason. I should probably go through my clothes this weekend as well, and bring it to the local Goodwill. Maybe next weekend. The apartment laundry facilities are still on the fritz, so I've been heading over to the laundromat up the street on Sundays. [Why yes, as a matter of fact I have been writing longhand while waiting for the cycles to end, why do you ask?]

So yes, things are looking spiffy round these parts!

In other news, the daily 750 Words exercise is once again going to be put aside for the time being, for the simple reason that Emm has now finished reading A Division of Souls and offered suggestions and comments, so now I can go through my galley copy and make the final fix. Once they are complete, then I can put the physical book up for sale on Amazon, get a few comp copies for various people, and update the e-book version as well.

As for The Persistence of Memories, I'm about a third of the way through the edit, so I'm hoping that I'll be finished by the end of the year. It looks like I should be on schedule to release it mid to late January, maybe even on my birthday. We shall see. I will most likely be doing the same thing with the physical copy--formatting it, getting a few galley copies made, editing it, and releasing that a slight bit later. I'll have a more solid date to announce as soon as it gets closer.

[On a side note...all this preparing for an official drop date has given me a bit of background on how it works when releasing a book or a record. This will definitely come in handy with a music-related fiction project I will be working on in the future.]

So all in all, things have been busy but creatively and positively so. Can't complain about that. :)

Oh, here's a shock. It's Wednesday and I'm listening to KSCU online playing The 80s Underground show, and now I've just gone and emptied out one of my mp3 players to throw a bunch of 80s albums on there. And it's not the first time I've done it, either...I did it a few times previously as part of my Walk in Silence playlist.

I'd put that project aside to put all my focus on releasing A Division of Souls, and I think it's high time to bring it back. Even if I only work on it on the weekends, I need to pick it back up and get a final draft done. Why? Because I'm aiming for a release of late April 2016.

Why a specific date, you ask? Well, it just so happens that the week of April vacation (do kids still have that nowadays?) in 1986 was the week I discovered college radio.

Yeah, that's right. I've been obsessing over the alternative rock genre for thirty years.

I think I'd better make a big party out of it, no?

[And yes, I'm well aware that I'm going to be releasing The Persistence of Memories somewhere around the same time. I'll try to keep it spread out.]

**

So anyway, what's with this rebel thing? Eh, just something that's been floating through my head lately. Over at Welcome to Bridgetown, I talked a bit about how far I wanted to take the whole DIY process in self-publishing. [And as I'd said there, I don't come to this as a way to make myself believe I don't need an editor or beta readers or what have you, or that I consider myself above such things. I just want to see how far I can take it completely on my own. If I fail miserably, I only have myself to blame, but I've also learned things as well.]

I'm half-jokingly thinking of it as a bit of personal rebellion, really. Not against anyone in particular, but a process that's been in place for decades. There's an understandable bit of frustration in the traditional publishing process -- writing, rewriting, revising, finishing, submission to an agent (repeat as necessary), submission to a publisher (repeat as necessary), finally get accepted, wait in line to be printed, wait for the release date -- particularly the time spent waiting, as well as the gamble that you may or may not even get a response.

Self-publishing has done a lot to minimize a lot of that frustration. Sure, there are a lot of questionable e-books out there, but there's also some pretty nifty ones as well. And on a product level, I'm finding that the novels may not contain Manhattan-level editing, but there's some equally fascinating story ideas. This is where my half-joking rebelling comes in: I'm the punk band that's just recorded an EP using their older brother's copy of SoundForge, done a spot of fine-tuning and mixing, and set it out on the world via Bandcamp. [Or if I really want to date myself, I borrowed time at my buddy's friend's uncle's tiny studio (which actually records PSAs and light entertainment music, and paid for after-hours time by doing their yardwork), made a cassette tape of a demo (and recycled the master reel afterwards) and sent copies of copies of copies of said tape (using a few bricks of Memorex tapes I bought at Radio Shack) out to various radio stations that I found listed in Maximum RnR.]

Come to think of it, I think this is actually a healthy way to look at it, at least personally. It gives me stable ground in which to base my methods of writing and publication, and it appeals to my own natural temptation to avoid doing something the way everyone else does. It clears my mind, and it clears my path, and that works for me.

Hoo! After two-plus weeks of being too lazy to do the grocery shopping, our refrigerator was dangerously on the verge of becoming a bro fridge (a bunch of condiments, about 1/8 cup of milk, a few vegetables that may be past their date, and a few beers, natch), so today was Shop for All the Things Day. Took a different way down to the mall in San Bruno by way of all back roads (we usually jump on 280 or cut through Daly City and Colma), and not so surprisingly, it took a lot less time to get there and back. And less traffic, too!

Anyhoo, our refrigerator looks a lot less embarrassing now. A is currently doing some canning now, while I start the afternoon housecleaning. That's the funny thing...I don't exactly procrastinate when it comes to housecleaning, as we generally pick up after ourselves when we're done with things. But weekend cleaning is usually an all-afternoon thing for me. I'll start with, say, the bathroom floors for starters, realize the shower needs scrubbing so I do that next, and then come to the conclusion that I'll need to vacuum at some point as well. Oh, and mop the kitchen floor, once A is finished with her project. There's also the temptation to start the laundry if no one else is using it, just to get it over and done with. [Note: Sundays are not a good laundry day, because that's when everyone else in the building thinks it's a good day to do it.]

Meanwhile, what else is going on?

The Grand Edit of The Persistence of Memories continues apace. As usual, my first couple of chapters are usually the ones that need the most fixing, but thankfully this one didn't need as much overhaul as ADoS did. Just a lot of scene rewriting and major deletion of extraneous crap. I've just started a new chapter and already I've deleted over 2000 words, so that's a good sign that I know exactly what needs to be done to make it even better.

Basically, I overwrite. A LOT. My verbose blog posts here and elsewhere are a good example. But to be honest, to me this is a good thing, because it means my major writing style overhaul in 1999 has worked out for the best. Before that, my writing was sparse and I left out a lot of detail...so much so that my prose read more like an outline than a novel. My longhand is still a bit like that, but that's okay, because longhand is supposed to be the VERY rough first draft. Point being -- when it comes to the revision, I get to do a lot of deletion, and the rewriting tends to be a lot of "how can I say this in fewer words?", which works out a lot better for me in the long run.

On a related note, I now have five galley copies of ADoS, one I've already claimed as the Red Pen Edition. This will be the one where I make all kinds of petty notes about layout, typos, and other embarrassing things. Once I get through that, then this book will FINALLY be available in physical form on Amazon! Yay!

On that note, back to the scrubbing and cleaning. And coffee drinking. Have a spiffy weekend!

"I just got my first purchase order notification for A Division of Souls. Yay, I'm a legit paid author now! BASK IN MY $4.69. #booyah"
--Me, tweeting yesterday. :)

So yes, I have made money off my book! I know of at least two friends who bought it so far, and hey, I'm okay with that! It's only been a couple of days since the drop date, and it's going to be available forever anyway, so I'm totally fine with being a slow burner. This is just the beginning.

[That's not to say I may have felt a passing twinge of "OH GOD I REALLY DO SUCK" the other day. I heard back from BookLife, who reviews books for Publishers Weekly, and they've decided to pass on reviewing. Granted, they get thousands of requests each day and can only select a tiny amount, so it was kind of expected. But I let that twinge pass. Onward and upward.]


Has anything changed, now that I have something to measure my writing career? On the surface, no, not really. I'm still Workin' for the Man during the day and slogging through my writing in the evenings and weekends. On the other hand, however, it's definitely changed my frame of reference. I may still be thinking about writing the next book, or simply enjoying the process of writing a novel, but I've now added the business side of it. I'm actively thinking about what steps I should take, where I can go with it, and everything else...taking it a little more seriously now. Like I'm finally working on it as a career instead of a pipe dream.

And I kinda like that. :)

Oh--and I think I'm pretty happy with first-day Smashwords numbers:
Sample (20% of book) downloads: 3
Full downloads: 3
Page hits: 100+

It's of course gone down since then, but I expected that. This is where shameless self-promotion comes in. I'm still working on that. ;)

Random bits:

--Apropos of nothing, I just realized that when I post on LJ, I usually prefer to use the HTML screen instead of the Visual Editor screen; when I post at my WordPress blogs, it's usually the other way around.

--Updated my PC to Windows 10...at present it's doing all the background tweaks and updates and should be good to go within the next few minutes. Now that I've got A Division of Souls ready for release, I had time to take care of it. The only thing I really needed to make sure of is to save my IE Favorites (yes, I know, I know...) since they didn't get saved for the new browser. I instead saved the folder to my Dropbox so I can access it from pretty much everything I use to go online now. Everything seems to be good so far.

--Man, our front windows were dirty! I just finished giving them a good cleaning, and they look SO much better. These are the only windows that get this dirty, really...they face the street but are recessed a bit due to it being the fire escape, so they don't get hit by the rain or condensation like the kitchen windows do. Yeah, I know, boring info. Sorry about that.

--The Insane Final Edit of The Persistence of Memories continues apace. This is the book where I got consistent with the daily numbers, which on the one hand forced me to be economical with the action, but on the other hand made me a bit repetitive in my prose, so I think I may have a better time excising than I thought. Still, there's about 30k words more in this one than in ADoS, so it'll take time. I'd kind of expected this, actually, so I'm fine with TPoM not coming out until the end of the year at the earliest.

--Tomorrow's plan is to head over to the Mission for book and yarn shopping (and perhaps some BiRite ice cream). We don't head over to that part of town all that often, partly because it's way on the other side of town with no quick way to get there (and yes, our hipster tolerance is kind of slim), but it is fun to stop at some of the neat stores down there.

And of course most importantly, my first book drops in 5 days!! Woo!!! :D